Search for BMX track site keys on Vista

6  There is a faint pulse in an effort to bring a BMX race track to North County. Very faint, but at least a glimmer of life for an idea that was near death just a few weeks ago.

Vince McCurdy, who operates two such dirt tracks — one in Kearny Mesa, one in Lakeside — spent two years pushing to build a track in Escondido, at Kit Carson Park. But that effort ended in March, when McCurdy came to believe the political opposition in Escondido was insurmountable. He yanked the plan.

Enter Vista Councilwoman Amanda Rigby, who read media coverage of the project’s Escondido demise. She picked up the phone and called McCurdy.

“We were kind of dead in the water until Amanda called us,” McCurdy said last week. “Vista would be a good fit, a hub in the middle of North County.”

The two have teamed up to see what sort of opportunities — read: available properties — Vista might be able to offer. So far, not much has popped. None of the land the city owns is the right fit for a racetrack, which requires between an acre or two of land, as well as space for parking and access to amenities like night-time lighting or restrooms.

But Rigby is still looking for a site, hoping to find a private owner willing to lease land for the track.

“If we have an opportunity to bring that entity into our community, that is what I would like to do,” Rigby said.

The efforts are hers alone, and not officially through the city.

McCurdy said the track wouldn’t create noise — the bikes have no motors — or problems with traffic or parking. He said the track would primarily draw North County residents — kids and their parents.

“We have a huge following up there, but it’s difficult (for them). It’s like having the only baseball field an hour away,” he said.

There are no BMX race tracks between the Kearny Mesa location and one in Perris, in Riverside County.

There is also a Lakeside location, Cactus Park BMX, which McCurdy developed with a partner. It sits on the north end of Cactus County Park, so has readily available parking. It also boasts bleachers and a snack bar.

Locating at the edge of a sports park is the ideal situation, McCurdy said. “We maintain and insure it. We operate it and we pay them (the city or county) a fee.”

It’s an “easy fit” he had hoped to find again in North County. He thought he had that fit with his proposal to put the track on the edge of Kit Carson Park, and was talking with the city about an initial subsidy to get it built. Some put that subsidy as high as $113,000; McCurdy said the cost would have been far less.

But the plan drew vocal opponents who said Kit Carson was already too busy and didn’t have enough open space. There’s a history of opposition to additions to Kit Carson Park, and other proposals — including one for a water park — have been scuttled after public outcry.

Escondido’s Community Services Commission, an advisory body to the City Council, voted against building the proposed track at Kit Carson, but supported placing it elsewhere in the city.

McCurdy pulled the Kit Carson proposal before it hit the Escondido City Council for a vote. Then came the call from Rigby.

Rigby said Vista could not subsidize the race track, but she likes the idea of building it in Vista to provide more and different activities for youth.

“He is still hopeful,” Rigby said. “We both are. I hope it’s Vista, but if not here, than somewhere else in North County that would be a viable location for our kids.”